A story about a dark chapter in American history, “12 Years a Slave” won the best picture award at the 86th Academy Awards, which was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday.

The true story of Solomon Northup, an African-American freeman who, in 1841, was kidnapped and sold into bondage took home two other Oscars, the fewest won by a best-picture winner since 2006’s “Crash” won three.

Brad Pitt, one of the producers of the film, accepted the award and then he turned it over to director Steve McQueen, who rushed through his speech, in the ceremony that went 30 minutes long. “I dedicate this to the 21 million people still in slavery,” he said, at the end of his speech.

The visually spectacular 3-D “Gravity,” about two stranded astronauts received the most statuettes with seven, including two for director Alfonso Cuarón. The film also swept the technical awards, winning editing, visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing.

Despite gloomy skies, the rains didn’t come, so this year’s ceremony, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, was a sunny affair for the best-acting winners.

After sweeping so many other awards. Matthew McConaughey seemed practiced in accepting the best actor statuette. He played the real-life Ron Woodroof, an electrician and small-time homophobic rodeo rider who after being diagnosed in 1985 as HIV-positive, changed his tune as he tries to survive. The actor thanked God and his family for his win. He then told a story about chasing the hero he would be in 10 years. He then threw in the oft-quoted first line from his Golden Globe acceptance speech, “All right, all right, all right.”

“Sit down — you’re too old to be standing,” the popular Cate Blanchett told the audience after being named best actress for Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.” In the film, she played a Blanche DuBois-style character, a fallen socialite forced to move in with her divorced sister. After amusingly praising her competitors, Blanchett thanked Woody Allen, who has been beset with controversy over 22-year-old child-molesting allegations

Upon accepting his best director’s award, Mexican filmmaker Cuarón joked that making a film can be a transformative experience.

“For a lot of people that transformation is wisdom. For me, it was coloring my hair.” On his first time up to the stage for the best editing trophy, which he shared with Mark Sanger, he didn’t get to speak. So to get in all his thank yous the second time, He had to switch to Spanish at the end.

Jared Leto got the first award of the evening as best supporting actor. The Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman portrayed Rayon, an AIDS patient and transsexual with a drug problem in “Dallas Buyers Club.” It was his first role in nearly six years.

Wearing a white tuxedo and bow tie, Leto said he was in awe of his fellow nominees. He then talked about his mother, whom he brought to the show. “I love you, Mom, thank you for teaching me to dream.” He also mentioned the political struggles in the Ukraine and Venezuela. He and McConaughey become the fourth pair from the same film to win best actor and best supporting Oscars.

Lupita Nyong’o was named best supporting actress, beating last year’s best actress winner, “American Hustle’s” Jennifer Lawrence. “Thank you, academy. It doesn’t escape me that the joy in life is due to the pain of someone else,” she said, referring to the tortured slave Patsey she played in “12 Years a Slave.” It was only the second film for the actress, who turned 31 on Saturday,

John Ridley won his first Oscar in the best adapted screen for “12 Years a Slave.” In an emotional speech. He talked about how he started out in sitcoms. “All the praise goes to Solomon Northup. Those are his words,” said Ridley.

After four nominations, Spike Jonze got an Oscar. He won best original screenplay for “Her,” a whimsical yet serious take on love in the computer age. He then gave a whimsical speech talking about his imaginary inspirations.

David O. Russell’s “American Hustle,” which had 10 nominations, won nothing. It was the same for Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

The 81-year-old Kim Novak, a glamorous star of the 1950s and 1960s in films like “Vertigo” came out with McConaughey to present the awards for animation.

As expected, Disney’s hugely popular “Frozen” was named best animated feature, winning first Oscars for Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho. In true collaboration, the trio split up the thank-you speech. On Sunday, “Frozen” crossed the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office, becoming only the second animated feature ever to achieve that milestone after “Toy Story 3.”

The showstopper “Let It Go” from “Frozen” was named best song. Broadway star Idina Menzel, who did it in the movie, performed it on Sunday night’s ABC telecast. It was written by “Book of Mormon” duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez who is one of rare people with an EGOT (an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony). The pair sang a little rhyme in their acceptance speech.

The best score went to Stephen Price for “Gravity” It was his first Oscar.

“Alfonso, you inspired every note I wrote,” said the British film composer.

The modest French animated short “Mr. Hublot” was a surprise winner, beating Disney’s 3-D “Get a Horse!,” which had played with “Frozen” in theaters.

An obviously popular choice, “20 Feet From Stardom,” the story of top backup singers, took home the best documentary award for director Morgan Neville, the late Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers. Neville noted that Friesen had the original idea for the film, and then turned over the microphone to one of those great artists — Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Darlene Love. She then belted out, “I sing because I’m happy.”

“The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” won the best documentary short. It is about pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, who died eight days ago in London at age 110. She was at the time the oldest-known survivor of the Holocaust and a woman who inspired people with music.

The Italian film “The Great Beauty” was named best foreign film. The surreal Fellini-esque story from director Paolo Sorrentino is the first winner from Italy since 1998’s “Life Is Beautiful.”

Catherine Martin won her third and fourth Oscars for costume design and production design for her work on the lavish production of “The Great Gatsby.” Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews won their first Oscars for their makeup and hair work in “Dallas Buyer’s Club.”

Oscar producers seemed to be looking for a middle-of-the-road show this year. James Franco’s indifferent performance as co-host in 2011 sent the Academy scurrying back to ’90s favorite Billy Crystal in 2012. Then they tried to draw a younger audience with Seth MacFarlane, whose “We Saw Your Boobs” song last year had many feeling uncomfortable. This year it was the comfort food presence of daytime talk show DeGeneres as host. She last hosted in 2007. DeGeneres’ humor can have a slight edge without being cutting or offensive.

Wearing a sparkly tuxedo, DeGeneres opened with a joke about the rains in Southern California, and then acknowledged the nominees in the audience with good-natured ribbing, like Jennifer Lawrence tripping on the way to get her Oscar last year. A running bit was getting pizzas delivered, and trying to get a selfie re-Tweeted. (They did. The Academy claims the Oscars has a worldwide audience of a billion, although that has never been verified.)

The recent deaths of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Harold Ramis, Sid Caesar and Shirley Temple made the “In Memoriam” montage difficult because they all died this year. Usually, it is only reserved for those who died in the past year. (A notable exception was Heath Ledger.) As it turn out, the four were included in the segment introduced by Glen Close. Others remembered were Peter O’Toole, Julie Harris, Joan Fontaine, Annette Funicello, James Gandolfini, Paul Walker and Ray Harryhausen. Bette Midler then sang “The Wind Beneath My Wings. ”

Music was a big part of show. Pharrell Williams, who had a big night at the recent Grammys, was first up with a lively performance of his upbeat “Happy” from “Despicable Me 2.” Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sang “The Moon Song” from “Her,” which she co-wrote with director Spike Jonze. Irish rock legends U2 did “Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom.”

Judy Garland’s three children — Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft — were on hand to mark the 75th anniversary of the iconic “The Wizard of Oz,” which starred their mother, but it was pop star Pink who sang “Over the Rainbow.”

Undoubtedly ,as the night wore on some of the Dolby Theatre crowd of around 3,000 were probably getting impatient to get to the post-event parties. Some would first head to the top floor of the Hollywood & Highland shopping center complex for the Governors Ball where John Legend was scheduled to perform. The more elite bunch — about 1,000 — would do the 2.1-mile drive to the Vanity Fair Party at the Sunset Tower, and later to more exclusive private shindigs. Some 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — overwhelmingly white and male body with an average age of 62-63 — voted to select the nominees and winners.

Rob Lowman began at the L.A. Daily News working in editing positions on the news side, including working on Page 1 the day the L.A. Riots began in 1992. In 1993, he made the move to features, and in 1995 became the Entertainment Editor for 15 years. He returned to writing full time in 2010. Throughout his career he has interviewed a wide range of celebrities in the arts. The list includes the likes of Denzel Washington and Clint Eastwood to Kristin Stewart and Emma Stone in Hollywood; classical figures like Yo Yo Ma and Gustavo Dudamel to pop stars like Norah Jones, Milly Cyrus and Madonna; and authors such as Joseph Heller, John Irving and Lee Child. Rob has covered theater, dance and the fine arts as well as reviewing film, TV and stage. He has also covered award shows and written news stories related to the entertainment business. A longtime resident of Santa Clarita, Rob is still working on his first more-than-30-year marriage, has three grown children (all with master's degrees) and five guitars.

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